Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was a very great man. To calmly deal with the kind of blind hate that he did from Southern Democrats like George Wallace and Lester Maddox and espouse non-violence and love takes a very great man. That’s why we celebrate his life today.

I know myself that if bigots were blowing up churches of those of my heritage, non-violence would not be the first thing on my mind. I know that if returning veterans, men who put their lives on the line for this country, of my same heritage were forced to drink from different water fountains or go to different laundries, love would take a back seat for me.

That Dr. King was able to overcome these natural reactions and truly preach the message of the New Testament marks him as a sublime moral leader and an optimist that we could eventually, as Lincoln said, adhere “to the better angels of our nature.” These words below of Dr. King ring down through the years.

“Let us realize the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice.” There’s the optimism that our country was on the road to real justice and equal opportunity, concepts that it did indeed take to heart.

“Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.” Here is the rejection of hatred, when it could have been so much easier to embrace an eye for an eye.

“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today.” Most of us know these words. Here is a rejection of the bigotry and racism that had stained America. Not soon after his tragic death, Dr. King’s vision of equal opportunity and equality before the law had overtaken America. Thank God for it.

But the man wasn’t pure as a first snow. He hung around some very unsavory people like Jack O’Dell. He didn’t keep one particular commandment, didn’t keep it a lot. And he went south on the South Vietnamese people and condemned an American effort that was trying to protect them from a Communist takeover. However, great men aren’t perfect men. Compared to what has come after him he was as close to perfection as was possible.

For then came anti-semetic race hustlers like Jesse Jackson, Black Lives Matter, Maxine Waters, and Ilhan Omar. The civil rights movement was lost to these socialists and racists who hate this country and loathe many of its citizens for the color of their skin. In the memory of Martin Luther King we must reject them, as he rejected the bigots of his day, and work towards the safety and improvement of a land that is fair, just, and free for all Americans.